My advice for passing the NCLEX.

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For all those yet to test I thought I would pass along a few pointers that I think may be helpful for taking the NCLEX-RN. It would be great if others who have tested could post some pointers as well.

1. Know how to prioritize which patient to see 1st out of numerous ill people. I had a bunch of these questions.

2. Know infection control procedures for all types of precaution catagories (i.e. airborne, droplet, etc.). Also had a fair amount of these.

3. For SATA, treat each option as a true or false question. Also, don't be afraid to only pick one or two options if that is all that you believe is correct.

4. For calculation questions...the scientific standard is to use the most complete numbers in your claculations and round off at the end: 8.333333333333 x 6.94736354, NOT 8.3 x 7.0.

5. Know Maslow's Hierarchy by heart.

6. Ask the testing person for a piece of paper you can use to cover up the # of questions in the corner of the test screen if you think it will help you focus more. I did this for the 1st part of the test and it helped me pay attention to the questions and not be worried so much about how fast I was going or whether I'd hit a certain number yet.

7. Drugs are difficult to study for b/c it seemed as if the side effects they wanted me to know about were the most obscure and rarely listed. However; I think it would help to know the major SE of drug classifications. i.e. opioids and benzos all share some CNS depression.

8. Take your time!!! Think through the questions, eliminate what you can, and make educated guesses when you have to.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Naomi RN

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Specializes in Med Surg, Telemetry, Long Term Care.

thanks for the tip.i'll be taking the exam on march 4.wish me luck..thanks..

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goodluck to ur coming exam ,i will take my nclex-rn too either the month of april or may....i will pray for u kababayan

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:wink2:Thanks for the advice, will be taking between end of march or first wk of april.

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I had a lot of returning which phone call first questions. Several which client do I discahrge first and a bunch of select all that apply. On the drugs I agree there were a lot that I've never heard of, but if you know the major S/E of different grops and know the groups it would make a big difference.

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Specializes in medical/surgical.

Thank you for your advice. I take my test the 2nd time at end of March.

Thanks again.

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Specializes in Clinical Nursing and OR Nursing.

thanks a lot for the tip, i will the exam 4th week of april for the 3rd time..eeeekkk:heartbeat

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

THANK YOU for the great tips!

Hope I'll put these tips into use on the day of my exam!!!

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How you can know the SE of the group drugs if you don't recognize the drugs listed in the questions?

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